It’s natural for consumers to expect to apply their deal vouchers across both food and drinks in restaurant deals. But, for now, it’s perhaps more prudent to proceed with caution with including alcohol in deals, and focus on the use of deals with food items only.
A recent story reported in Boston.com highlights a new Fine Print issue in Daily Deals. It appears that the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has weighed in and challenged Daily Deals that offer drinks, as a violation of the state’s “happy hour” regulation, that essentially prohibits selling drinks to anyone below the prices available to the general public.
Deals Disconnect: Merchants Love the Model but Often Won’t Repeat
By: Perry
Editor’s Note: This Guest Post is from Greg Sterling, one of the leading analysts in the local online technology space.
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about media and the connection between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling.
In 2010 Groupon reportedly made $760 million according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal. However the unprecedented growth of the daily deals segment and Groupon in particular has left some casualties in its fiery wake.
In early 2010, just as Groupon was gaining national visibility and momentum, anecdotal stories emerged of small businesses that couldn’t handle the customer volume or for whom the Groupon promotion turned out to be highly unprofitable. There were also gripes by some business owners about the type of customers Groupon delivered – bargain hunters who don’t repeat.
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